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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	lord_n	write_v	3,437	5	5.3701	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88248	The resurrection of John Lilburne, now a prisoner in Dover-Castle, declared and manifested in these following lines penned by himself, and now at his desire published in print in these following words.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1656 (1656)	Wing L2176; Thomason E880_5; ESTC R206594	27,124	25

shall be told me being willing and desirous to have the scales fall further from the blinde eyes of my soul that they may be further open'd and that a power therewith may come in to my soul from the Holy Ghost which may inable me in the strength thereof to redeem my lost and mis-spent by-past precious time and not now to consult with flesh and blood in my daily taking up the Cross of Christ and following him whithersoever he shall by his call or heavenly Divine voice within me lead me I say I am compelled from a power within me at this present time in brief to tell thee these things and to require thee from God to give ear to that true convincing light that clearly speaks in thy conscience and by the assistance thereof to strive with the first or fallen nature yet ruling in thy soul and lay aside that greatness of wit and earthly wisdom that thou hast attained to and in that measure of Light that long since thou hast received withdraw into thy private Closet and seriously meditate upon these brief lines And being thou in my late conversing with thee told me thou hadst read or hadst sent me down from London most of the Quakers Books Let me in love to thy soul earnestly intreat thee with seriousness to read over strong and tall in Christ Iames Nayler his sheet of paper intitled Something further in answer to John Jacksons book called Strength in weakness which Iohn Iackson is my indeared friend and old and long acquaintance and a greater professor of Religion now then ever thou thy self in all thy zeal once was therefore in him thou mayest plainly read thy own condition and that precious prisoner of the Lords in Northampton Goal VVilliam Dewsbury his two books the first and excellentest of which is called The discovery of the great enmity of the serpent against the seed of the woman his other book is intituled The discovery of mans Return and the Lord by his almighty power set them home to thy soul I heartily desire to return thee my hearty thanks for all thy kindness and tenderness manifested to me at Jersey in our passage from thence and at thy own house so with my hearty salutations presented to thee and all thy friends that were with me at thy house at Weymouth I desire to let thee know that by my moral honest carefull and industrious old Nurse Elizabeth Crome who by reason of shortness of money with me I am forced and compelled to part with I have writ thee a few lines in her behalf intreating thy countenance and favourable respect to the old and real serviceable to me in my great distress in Jersey woman in case in things that are just and righteous before God she desire thy favour and what thee or thy friend and mine Edward commonly called Lievtenant Tucker in that particular doth for her I shal thankfully look upon as actions done to thy souls From Dover-Castle being a place wherein God hath more clearly then ever before opened the eyes of my understanding the 5. day of the to moneth 1655. Faithful hearty and real wel-wishing friend Iohn Lilburn With which fore-mentioned main or principal thing that I have now to say I thus proceed and go on with it here in the especial presence of the Lord declare that by that present measure of light now born up in my understanding and moving in my soul at this very time I am here compelled to let the Reader whosoever he be to know that as I have long understood from my wife the original of my fore-going Letter to her she conveyed to the hands of Oliver Cromwel himself and at his Son-in Law 's desire Charls Fleetwood my old and somtimes much familiar greatly obliging friend gave him a copy of it and notwithstanding the clear declarations of a sincere changed in measure heart in the said Letter at the penning of which I had then lost all manner of ability to consult with one grain of Machivel or humane deceitful policy having then the very dreadful and aweful immediate convincing judging and burning up power of God upon my soul yet upon my said writing and my wifes disposing as aforesaid of my said Letter many and great jealousies arise upon me at VVhite-hall at the strange politick contrivance of my largely reputed by them politique heart in my turning quaker of which I had several wayes exact information which it seems out of humane fear took that powerful impression upon my poor weak wife as that as I judged by her Letters to me troubled the poor afflicted Woman at the very heart and compelled her by writing in a vehement manner to press me to sign such an ingagement as George Fox did the Copy of which I have seen and read and sent it up to Oliver Cromwel to secure him from his pretended fears of my politick indeavouring to craw the temporal sword against him unto which for many reasons having then no manner of freedom in the earth to do it George Fox though even then a precious man in my eyes his particular actions being no rules for me to walk by unless I lived in the very same life and power of Spiritual injoyments that he did and had the very self-same motions in spirit from God that led him to a freedom and ability to do such and the like particular actions I therefore then ceased it and did it not and if I had then done it for my own particular human ends as to avoid further persecution and the like I had in so doing been an outside pharisaical imitator and the greatest and basest of hypocrites which sin alone is the height of Gods a Mat. 24.51 Rev. 3.15 16. See Mat. 6.5 23.13 14. Luk. 11 44.46 c. abhorrance for although I must before the Lord now truly avow that the said Letter was a true and faithful without fraud or guile declaration of as real and spirituall a power of God in its measure seising upon my soul for my conviction of my spiritual blindness and sinfulness as ever seized upon Pauls declared in the 9 of the Acts or any mans that ever breathed upon earth yet betwixt the Winter-storms and fierce tempests of conviction or rather the beginning of it and the pleasant Sunshine dewey and springing days of growth into a measure of refreshment there is a vast difference and therefore then the true occasion or real ground of all outward war and humane busling contest being not taken away or absolutely crucified or subdued at the very Root in my soul if then I had signed such an engagement I had clearly gone beyond my souls then living and real attainments and thereby ran presumptuously and wickedly beyond my measure and so had tempted the Lord my then present Leader and spiritual guide and abominably sinned against him But now in my already attained growing up measure having the experimental witness of God within my b 1

and really bestowed the clear injoyment of upon many of his Ransomed ones contemptibly and scornfully called quakers I say unto thee the real and close applyed home unto my soul by the spirit and power of life from God that now aloud again speaks within me consideration of the premises or that which is foregoing and that people afar off yea ignorant ideots fools and prophane * * As is clearly proved by the printed speeches of severall of the prisoners in Northhampton and Eversham Goals ones in comparison of my being so nigh at hand so many yeers ago to the clear and full possession of the spiritual Land of Canaan should enter into the glorious Kingdom of God or that clearness of Rest Peace and Union in and with him that now clearly to my spiritual understanding they iajoy and there bring forth the ripe fruits of spiritual old age in comparison of me of Praises Honor and Glory to the Lamb and to the ancient of Dayes that clearly sits upon the Throne in their hearts as having judged down conquered and overcome within them all their sinns or spiritual enemies and caused them to triumph over them as in his strength divine and heavenly power reigning and ruling as King and Lord over them O I say unto thee again the real sight in its measure and degree and spiritual consideration of these things since I last see thee for divers hours in several nights one after another when my God denyed sleep unto my outward eyes and caused my soul to be awake with himselfe and to be really exercised in an interchange of Divine conference contemplation or parley with him hath even caused my soul to weep sigh and mourn within me before him and in his strength and almighty power to indent with him and now in good earnest to ingage in my soul or spiritual man to be obedient to his heavenly and divine voyce speaking clearly in me and to follow him least I should now by any longer resistance totally quench his divine drawings through the denyal of my own or natural reason will wit wisdom desires and affections and with a real weanedness from worldly or fleshly honour applause glory riches or creature-fulness yea even to a final denyal of father kindred friends my sweet and dearly beloved by me babes or thy own self who viz. thy self for many yeers by-past I must avow it before the Almighty in sincerity and truth hath been to me the greatest dearest of all earthly delights and joyes And now therefore look about thee in good earnest and see what thou hast got to thy self as to the flesh by thy eager desires and strong indeavours to bring me back again into England for the day of thy real strong and full temptation and trial never came upon thee till now if God give thee not by degrees the fulness and compleatness of spiritual and heavenly strength and ability to bear it and go through it For my part I am now in reallity and truth in the clearly lively or evident seeing of the wisdom and loving hand of a tender and indeared eternal father in stripping me naked of all earthly and created excellencies and taking my outward Estate and profitable worldly Imployment and all my worldly glory from me and graciously and supportingly leading me through the valley of Baca Psal 84.6 or tears outward dangers and death for now almost four yeers together and seperating fromme for a long time that wonted delight that used to be betwixt thee my old and real I doll and me and at my coming to this place clearly unrobeing me of all and every one of my old friends and familiar acquaintance that were any way fit or able to do any thing for me and thereby hedging up my way that I must whether I will or no in spite of my teeth once again give ear to the serious and plain voice call or counsel of the most High speaking in and unto my soul And so in much mercy and indeared loving kindness as he did in my great straits in the Bishops time prouided and sent to me a poor dispised yet understanding Priscilla to instruct me in or expound unto me the way of God more fully or perfectly whom I am compell'd now to tell thee I shall love respect therefore the longest day I live upon the earth let her continue by whomsoever to be judged never so rigid or contemptible so here at his place he hath also provided for me an Aquilla being a contemptible yet understanding spiritually knowing single hearted Shoomaker to do the same now to my spiritual no small advantage refreshment benefit by means of all which I am at present become dead to my former busling acting in the world and now stand ready with the devour centurion or captain spoken of Act. 10. to hear and obey all things that the lively voice of God speaking in my soul shal require of me upon the further manifestation of whose glorious presence my heart with a watching fear care desires to wait and to walk faithfully and tenderly and humbly in that measure of Light already received and out of the strength of indearedness of love and tenderness of affection that hath long in times by-past dwelt in me towards thee and of late in much sincerity is renewed unto thee again I have with the same eternal wel-wishing of thy-spiritual happiness as I do my own ordered Giles Calvert to send unto thee several of those printed pieces of the quakers that in the serious reading of which have been most convincingly instructive unto my soul amongst which I have judged in the first place Iames Naylor that strong or tall man in Christ his Something in answer unto thy and my indeared friend John Jackson that tall Cedar in great profession of Religion his book called Strength in weakness which book the last Post I received from thee in the reading of which piece of Iames Naylors I must set my seal to it that there goes along in the breathings out of it a great deal of the quickning life power of the spirit of God unto it are annexed several pieces of that precious and divine soul VVilliam Deusbury the Lords now or late glorious prisoner in Northampton common goal to whose precious and heavenly spirit although I never see his face mine in indearedness of love is glued unto whose books is cald The discovery of the great enmity of the Serpent against the Seed of the woman and his discovery of mans return have been pieces in my reading of them seriously that by the power of the Almighty hath spoken home to my soul I have ordered to be annexed unto them as I remember as many as makes them ten in number and then twelve more in another volume principally for answering Objections I have ordered to be sent unto thee which I hope thou wilt receive before this come to thee bound up in that method that J have directed

this Light the true real and only infallible c c Esa 3● 20 21. 35.8 Ioh. 1.9 6.7 8 13 15 25. Rom. 8.6 7 8. Heb. 8.8 9 10 11. 16.16 20. Ioh. 2.20.27 5.20 Rev. 7.17 guide of every true Christian is condemnation before the Lord to all and euery one of those that so d d Ioh. 3.19 20 36. 5.38 48. 7.7 8.21 24 47 51. 9.5 Heb. 10.28 29. 12.25 Act. 7.37 ser Iob. 24.13 16. contemn and despiseth this onely alone and true guide the light of Christ in the soul This I send unto thee at the present thus in print without sending it in writing to thee at all because although much disturbance or outside trouble of late I have had by the blasphemous Scriblings sent unto me by and of thy brother Ieremiah Elsreath who after he had sent me in writing his 31. confused and ignorant quaeries c. in his after-daring and greatly provoking Letter the 19th of the first moneth last by-past he requires my Answer c. in writing to them boastingly saying to me c. I shall answer you all and upon desire procure the approbation of a sufficient number of hands to make the his said Answer a generall act And although he had a particular Reply to his Answer to deceased in Colchester Goal Iames Pa●nels fourty three quaeries to the Water-Baptists of Fenstanton in Cambridge c. recorded in that excellent and very much usefull Book of his called the VVATCHER pag. 32 33 34. and a particular Answer to his own thirty one quaeries and that from an able and savoury soul commonly called Richard Hubberthorne which I did write out fair in my own hand and sent it to your Congregation by my faithfull Friend Luke Howard where with much ado long since I have understood it from him c. he got it publikely read but yet for any thing I can hear thy brother Ieremiah Elsreth keeps it privately and closely in his pocket and dare not be a man of his word to answer it or Reply upon it but is as I hear going to sea as formerly he hath done to take the wages of unrighteousness again for preaching out of his old bottle the lying frothy inventions of his own corrupt and meer carnall heart to a company of Sea men aboard a Man of War and therefore seeing he is likely to persevere in not performing his said solemn Promise given under his own hand and seeing thou thy self to Luke Howard as he hath often told me declaredst by thy own mouth to him thy avowing Jeremiah Elsreths foresaid thirty one quaeries in the last of which he calls the Doctrines of declaring God within and Christ within and Spirit within and Baptism within and Law within c. to be monstrous and Satanicall Doctrines And seeing thou perseverest upon all opportunies with a spirit of gall and wormwood to reproach persecute and blaspheme the truth of God as it is in Jesus truly professed by those savoury souls that thou callest quakers I am therefore by the measure of God dwelling in my soul at this time thus compelled and thus enabled to write to thee requiring thy answer to these my lines to thee that so as God shall come in with renewedness of strength and ability into my soul according to his e e Esa 40.28 29 30 31. recorded promise I may in the face of the Son endeavour before the sons and daughters of God for to manifest my faith to be founded upon the sure Rock of Ages the Lord Jesus by replying upon thee and so stop thy and thy said brothers blasphemous mouths against the pure truth of God And therefore as a witness bearer to this I subscribe my name as known unto thee to be only From Dover-Castle this 25. of the third month 1656. Iohn Lilburns FINIS